ZAGS, Arabian Nationals and Pain in the Butt

 

I made my annual October pilgrimage yesterday. 

It's always a quick trip into Spokane and an even quicker visit to McCarthey Athletic Complex. 

I hand over a donation and whoever works in the main office reciprocates with a pile of men's and women's basketball season schedule posters. 

Over the next week or so, I'll distribute them to family and friends.  

It's a good feeling doing this every year, almost like Santa Claus, because everyone who has a poster deals with the same ZAGmania syndrome that has afflicted me for at least two decades, plus a few more years. 

I'm doubly happy because the new posters add to my wallpaper in various parts of the house. 

The information on the poster also offers good news for the next several months----games to attend (we have women's season tickets) and games to watch with at least one weekly family ZAG and GRUBfest. 

The posters symbolize our best therapy for long winters, plus, the teams are pretty good too.  

In less than three weeks, the continual reminder of ZAG events will start showing up on the blog, and we family members and friends will pull out our apparel for sitting in respective living rooms, cheering on the teams. 

The scene will also be happening throughout the area, as so many of us LOVE the ZAGS. 

It was a beautiful day on the campus.  Spokane has enough difference from weather here in North Idaho   that the autumn leaves are still looking as vibrant and stunning as can be.

All that said, we're all looking forward to another exciting season of GO, ZAGS!  

Speaking of other athletic happenings, congratulations to the Sandpoint High boys and girls cross country teams which swept regionals yesterday.

On to State!

And, as another "WOWSER," the girls swept their meet by taking the top five medals in yesterday's competition.

Bill and I keep track of this stuff because SHS three cross country runners live in our neighborhood, and we've watched them grow up.

So, it's neat to see Caleb and Nathan Roche (both placed for the boys)  and Terra Bode contribute so much to their teams. 

Caleb, Nathan and Terra, we are proud of you!   

~~~~~

In other news, today marks the opening of the U.S. Arabian National Horse Show in Tulsa, Okla. 

My siblings and their friends and their horses are ready to go with today's opening.  

My sister Barbara and her 14-year-old Half Arabian gelding Dusty aka Ravenwood Dunin Style have two classes today---Half Arabian Amateur Owner to Ride (AOTR) Western Trail and AOTR showmanship, 50 and over. 

Laurie tells me today's trail class with its 23 entries is extremely competitive.

If anyone is so inclined, I've provided a link for livestreaming the show.  It does cost $25, but it's good for every day of the show.  

Laurie also tells me the times for Barbara's classes are generally mid-to-late morning for the trail and around 5 p.m. (they're livin' on Tulsa time)  for the showmanship class. Both classes will be in the Pavilion for anyone who decides to watch. 

Laurie says that if time allows, she'll text me shortly before the classes are coming up, and I can post on Facebook. 

Even if you don't see Barbara, Laurie and Roxzene's  classes, you can tune in any time and watch stunningly beautiful horses from across the nation do their thing. 

It's definitely a crap shoot on the exact time aspect, but it's for sure we'll be cheering her on and Roxzene and Laurie when they compete in their classes over the next several days.  

And, of course, we'll all be sharing any good news that happens on Tulsa time!

Good luck, Barbara.  

http://www.arabianhorses.stream/ 

Still way too much sad news happening around this area.  Happily, though, we have occasional humorous diversions, thanks to folks like Dick Gooby who grew up in Sandpoint and now lives on a ranch in Twin Bridges, Mont.

Dick's brother Pat writes those "verbose???" letters-to-the-editor in the Daily Bee. 

Well, thanks to continued help from his wife Mary Ann, Dick usually has much more to report than brother Pat. 

Yesterday, he sent me the following:   

Gooby Ranch Report

A couple weeks ago I started having a pain in my hip.  It wouldn’t go away so Mary Ann made a doctor’s appointment to see what the problem was.  

We went to the doctor, she did a checkup and said, “It was a muscle problem.” 

The doctor said we needed to see a therapist to see how to relax the muscle.  We went to the therapist and she said the best way to relax the muscle was to do pushups.  

She said I needed to do at least 10 pushups a day.  She said the reason I was having the muscle problem is that I was spending way too much time sitting on my butt.

When we got home, I hit the floor to do pushups and got about a half a pushup done before I had to give up.  

A week later I still hadn’t done a full pushup.   I finally figured out that if Mary Ann put a pully in the ceiling, put a rope through the pully and hooked the rope to my belt, she could pull the rope while I was doing the pushups.  

It worked great.  

After a couple weeks I was clear up to 40 pushups while Mary Ann was swinging on the rope.

We had to go back to see the doctor and when I told her I was doing 40 pushups she said she was really proud of me.

Mary Ann told the doctor she has a pain in the butt.  The doctor said point to where it is.  Mary Ann pointed at me.